"Our world is a conflicted, stress-filled place. On 'Seeking Utopia' you'll find images and words of beauty that will surely make you think, lift your spirits, give you hope, or even bring a smile."

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Is The Answer In The Mirror?

Well, as we begin the countdown to New Years Eve and the start of another year, people are perhaps thinking about making New Year Resolutions like: I must lose weight, or I must spend more time with the kids.

Given the current chaos of our world I'm sure that most people wish that things were different: that peace existed, that the headlines we see in our newspapers and on television weren't true, that families didn't fight and couples didn't divorce and that children weren't molested or neglected or abused, and that people weren't starving and that everyone could get proper medical attention, that the gap between the rich and the poor wasn't getting wider, etc. Of course we do!

And in most people's minds they wish that some government or some bureaucracy or some magical leader like Ghandi or Martin Luther King could emerge and, using great oration and lighting a fire within each one of us, with marching bands and large slogans, lead us all towards a better place, a better world where we would all be equal, we would all share, we would all care.

Of course, this is all fanciful. Occasionally great leaders do emerge but they do not change the world! They change only a small part of it and, all too often, only for a short period of time.

No, the only person who is capable of changing the world will appear soon.

Happy New Year, Daniel. I hope you enjoyed partying in Oz! We're about to cross the line here, and I'm spending it thinking about how I'd like to live better in 2008 (and by living more simply not just by moving to Canada, which will also happen.)

May it be a healthy and sane one for all of us. At least one can wish.